Pasta con le sarde is a very typical pasta dish from Sicily with a unique flavor. The main ingredients are pasta and sardines as the name implies, but also wild fennel (finocchietto). The latter ingredient may be hard to find outside of Italy, but luckily dill is an acceptable substitute. As with many Sicilian dishes it also includes pine nuts and raisins. Supporting ingredients are onion, anchovies, and saffron. The combination of sardines, finocchietto (or dill), raisins and pine nuts is a unique flavor that you only find in this dish. The sardines are cooked until they fall apart, and then mixed with the finocchietto and the other ingredients as well as some of the pasta cooking water into a thick sauce that works with either long or short pasta. The usual pasta shapes are bucatini (thick hollow spaghetti, or its slightly thicker cousin from Sicily called perciatelli) or mezzi ziti (also known as mezze maniche; the closest I had in my pantry was full sized ziti, so that is what I used). As usual each family has its own recipe, and there are many variations like adding toasted and ground almond, serving it with breadcrumbs sautéed in olive oil, or replacing the saffron with tomato. Here is my version.

Ingredients

For 3 servings

225 grams (1/2 lb) pasta, bucatini or mezzi ziti (penne or spaghetti would not be traditional, but would definitely work)

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Bravo stef! Glorious dish. I will publish my version in tthe next few days – similar, but with a little strattu, sicilian amazing tomatoe pure/ i have made pasta con le sarde also with canned sardines and mackerel – always delicious

My ‘knowledge’ of Italian cookery can be roughly divided into two: N and S of Rome 🙂 ! So this is delightfully different: saffron and anchovies melded just has to be tried! Really want to learn using tinned sardines as in rural Australia that is oft the only option!

Hi Stefan,
What a wonderful dish, superbly executed 🙂
Cheers 🙂
.
P.S.
Here is a different version which I make both with fresh and at other times with canned sardines.
Having lived in Portugal on the Island of Madeira, fresh sardines were an almost everyday treat, which has spoiled me for “fresh” sardines in most other places.
However, for this dish, I usually prefer good quality canned sardines 🙂
.https://chefsopinion.org/2016/01/07/delicious-quickie-bucatini-con-sarde/

My favourite (Locatelli?) was the idea of “Pasta con le sarde al mare” which roughly means pasta with the sardines who are still in the sea – so you do the same dish, pasta, fennel fronds, sultanas, pine-nuts – but without the fish!